Tag: fantastic four

September 15 / / Marvel

If you’ve been following along with what’s being going on with the Marvel Universe right now, you’ve noticed that your favorite books have been missing. If you haven’t been following along, then don’t feel bad, it’s quite confusing because Marvel’s summer story arc, Secret Wars, has been dominating their current lineup.

SECRET-WARS-1-HEROES

If you’re not too familiar with the 1984 Secret Wars, the story revolved around a place called Battleworld where a supreme being called the Beyonder brought the characters of the Marvel Universe together to fight it out. So, what’s the difference with this summer’s Secret WarsEverything, except the name of the story arc and the place Battleworld.

December 22 / / Marvel

The year is 1984. Mattel teams up with Marvel to create a line of officially-licensed action figures based on Marvel characters. Someone decides that the best way to promote these toys is to create a 12-issue comic book series that includes all of the characters, and the now-classic Secret Wars is born.

While Secret Wars may have been born out of pure promotional tactics, it has cemented itself as a modern classic by being the first major crossover event of its kind. Back in 1984, big crossover events didn’t really happen, so the thought of pitting Marvel’s best superheroes against it’s best villains was a fairly groundbreaking concept.

So how exactly did they bring all of these characters together?